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Hilary Clinton's Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Submitted by kitten8231

Hillary Clinton’s chocolate chip cookies with rolled oats, shortening, and brown sugar. The famous 1992 cookie recipe that started the presidential bake-off tradition.

YIELD

1 servings

PREP

10 min

COOK

10 min

READY

20 min

This is the recipe that launched a thousand debates. During the 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton submitted these chocolate chip cookies to Family Circle magazine’s first-ever Presidential Cookie Bake-Off against Barbara Bush’s recipe. The twist that sets these apart from a standard Toll House: two cups of old-fashioned rolled oats folded into the batter alongside the chips.

The oats change everything about the texture. They absorb moisture during baking and create a chewy, substantial cookie with a slightly nubby bite, somewhere between a classic chocolate chip and an oatmeal cookie. Without the oats, this would be a fairly standard drop cookie. With them, it’s something more interesting.

Vegetable shortening instead of butter is a deliberate choice. Shortening melts at a higher temperature than butter, which means the cookies spread less and hold their rounded shape better during baking. The tradeoff is flavor (butter tastes better), but the texture is more consistent and the cookies stay soft longer.

Beat the shortening and sugars until genuinely creamy, then beat the eggs in until the mixture is light and fluffy. This aeration step is what makes seven dozen cookies from a relatively modest amount of dough. Skimp on the beating and you get fewer, denser cookies.

Drop by rounded teaspoons for small, bite-sized cookies. Eight to ten minutes at 350F gives you golden edges with a soft center that firms up during the two-minute rest on the sheet.

Pro Tips

  • Use old-fashioned rolled oats, not quick oats. Quick oats dissolve too much and you lose the texture
  • Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for the full two minutes. They’re too soft to move right out of the oven
  • Rounded teaspoons, not tablespoons. These are meant to be small, one-or-two-bite cookies
  • Store in an airtight container at room temperature. The shortening keeps them soft for up to a week

Variations

  • Swap half the shortening for butter for better flavor while keeping the soft texture
  • Add a cup of chopped walnuts or pecans to the batter with the oats
  • Use dark chocolate chips instead of semisweet for a richer chocolate hit

Ingredients

1 ½ 355
1 5
TEASPOON ML SALT
1 5
TEASPOON ML BAKING SODA
1 237
1 237
CUP ML BROWN SUGAR
firmly packed *
½ 118
CUP ML SUGAR
granulated
1 5
TEASPOON ML VANILLA EXTRACT
2 2
LARGE LARGE EGGS
2 473
CUPS ML ROLLED OAT
rolled, old fashioned
1 1

Directions

Preheat oven to 350℉ (180℃).

Brush baking sheets lightly with vegetable oil.

Combine flour, salt and baking soda on waxced paper.

Beat together shortening, sugars and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer until creamy.

Add eggs and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Stir in rolled oats and then chocolate chips. Drop batter by rounded teaspoonsfuls onto baking sheets.

Bake in 350℉ (180℃) oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden.

Cool cookies on sheets for 2 minutes.

Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 7 dozen

* not incl. in nutrient facts Arrow up button

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Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 880g (31.0 oz)
Amount per Serving
Calories 3241 23% from fat
 % Daily Value *
Total Fat 84g 129%
Saturated Fat 37g 185%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 423mg 141%
Sodium 3074mg 128%
Total Carbohydrate 186g 186%
Dietary Fiber 48g 192%
Sugars g
Protein 183g
Vitamin A 10% Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 31% Iron 170%
* based on a 2,000 calorie diet How is this calculated?
Trans-fat Free, High Fiber
 

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